Intro from Wikipedia:
The Kafr Qasim massacre took place in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim situated on the Green Line, at that time, the de facto border between Israel and the Jordanian West Bank on October 29, 1956. It was carried out by the Israel Border Police (Magav), who killed Arab civilians returning from work during a curfew, imposed earlier in the day, on the eve of the Sinai war, of which they were unaware. In total 48 people died, of which 19 were men, 6 were women and 23 were children aged 8–17. Arab sources usually give the death toll as 49, as they include the unborn child of one of the women.
The border policemen who were involved in the shooting were brought to trial and found guilty and sentenced to prison terms, but all received pardons and were released in a year. The brigade commander was sentenced to pay the symbolic fine of 10 prutot (old Israeli cents). The Israeli court found that the command to kill civilians was “blatantly illegal”.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz wrote in Haaretz with the biting sarcasm for which he was known:
“For the sake of the justice that the State of Israel proclaims, we must organize in this country a mass petition addressed to the governments of the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union and demand a revision of the Nuremberg laws and the rehabilitation of the officers, soldiers, and officials sentenced there to death and hanged, because all of them acted in accordance with explicit orders from their legal commanders.”
Source: “The Seventh Million” by Tom Segev, p. 298 – 300
I half agree. The occupation is, indeed, ghastly, and its results immoral. But we should replace the occupation not with Meretz ideas, but with something like the Feiglin approach — and should have from the start.
Jews, I know you’re God’s chosen people and the rest of us are just ‘whatever’, but when Israel behaves like a violent, psychopathic bully and someone mentions it, that doesn’t make them anti-Semitic.
Marcus Brigstocke
For an elaboration of my socially heretical definition of Anti-Semitism, read my humbly definitive treatment here.
